YakShaving

I’ve decided that I’m going to be attending the Institute of Design @ IIT in Chicago starting in August. I outlined a series of reasons below on why I decided to go to Design school over a top tier MBA program.

* I don’t want to be a management consultant or an investment banker. I can’t make that work/life balance equation work unless I know there are immense rewards at the end. (These are not necessarily financial in nature.. If I found a more equitable mesofinance model to help 3rd world countries emerge from poverty, I’d be willing to put in a little more work!).. I know I know, I can explore other options other than MC/IB after school… but all said and done, given the right amount of work and good connections, I can explore those options before even stepping in a B-school.

* I see myself as a visionary person who can create high level strategy. I need to hone this skill further, and leave the hairy details to an MBA to figure out. A design school (especially a degree in design planning) will help me towards this end.

* Going back to school, for me is nothing other than an incubation period. Its a time for me to be introspective and explore options that I feel I’m more aligned to as a creative person. From my undergraduate CS degree, I’ve learned that I can be analytical, and from my day gig I know that I can be quantitatively oriented. To learn about the nitty gritties of finance, VC or Private equity, it just requires that I sit down with a book for a while.

* The tag. Its no doubt that B-schools are all about “tags” and they are licenses to have conversations with those in upper echelons at VC firms, and employers (who graduated from the same schools). The material you actually learn is the same everywhere, but the others who are around you in school are bright, talented individuals who share the same goal.

* Geek street cred. I used to be an engineer not long ago, and a veritable geek, I might add. I understand the cynicism that most geeks have towards “business types” who are looking to monetize everything, to the tune of unfettered greed. Though I always understood the need for these archetypes in an organization, I’d rather be considered a thought leader by the geek community (who, as well all know, really fuel a knowledge driven enterprise)

* From the research that I have done, The Institute of Design @ IIT has the best design planning program in the United States. Period. Moreover, its small classes facilitate the kind of problem solving discussion that really exists (or SHOULD exist) in organizations. The students that I met there are talented, guiding creative lights in the design realm. When I look around at my peers, I am proud to be part of this community.

* All said and done, it will still be possible later on to get an MBA as a tertiary degree if I think it will help me. To date, I think I’d rather spend my time executing on ideas and visions and learning by making mistakes (after all, its really the only way I’ve ever learned in the past!). If I decided to work for someone else, it is far more likely that an employer would pay for an MBA than an MDes.

For more fodder, check out Seth Godin’s post.

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